Despite 12 years of continuous combat experience and significant advances in material, design and manufacture technology, the military’s holster selection process and guidance on wear still leaves plenty to be desired.

Holster choice is largely inconsistent, frequently arbitrary and only rarely reflected in training or on the square range.

I know this to be true – I just don’t know if there’s anything to be done about it.

TAMPA — M134D Minigun maker Dillion Aero is showcasing a new Multi-Mission Configurable System(MMC) designed to provide a plug-and-play replaceable turret ring, gun mount and magazine to support a range of possible gun options.

“This is designed to take the place of a standard turret system,” said Aaron Kirch, research and development specialist, Dillon Aero, at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference here. [click to continue…]

Defense Tech recently released their “top service inventions of 2011″ if you missed it. It took until nearly the end of 2012 to make the announcement and the “Gear Oscars” won’t be celebrated until 2013 (I won’t be moderating) but it’s still an interesting read. Their list includes:

An armor package that can be integrated into a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle with little modification to an existing armor package, protecting the driver and commander sides and mitigating the exposed area from explosively formed penetrators…

Helmet Sensors

A helmet sensor and data retrieval system that measure impact and pressure events continuously…

Keeping with the spirit of next generation vehicles, for those of you that know, Jeep and AM General are in a cage match over the next generation military vehicle. While this is big Army, Jack had a good SOCOM post back in July you can check out about Jeep vs. Flyer. I’m personally not a fan of the Hummer. Big, clunky, expensive to repair and sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl in any Area of Operation. I hated driving the Hummer when I was in Afghanistan and much preferred the Toyota Hilux four-door. [click to continue…]

Looks like those crazy folks at DARPA are trying to partner with industry to build the combat vehicle of the future. There aren’t much in the way of requirements or funding information available on the street right now. Kit Up will be watching for updates in the future and I’ll keep you guys posted. Out of all the R&D agencies DARPA actually does/facilitates some great work now and then. Even though most the guys I’ve met that worked there can’t put on a matching pair of socks…Read below for more. We’d also like to hear your thoughts on what would make a kick ass future combat vehicle. -Brandon out.[click to continue…]

My attention was recently brought to Force Protection’s JAMMA, or Joint All-Terrain Modular Mobility Asset vehicle. As I’ve reported in the past, SOCOM has dropped the requirement for a V-22 compatible vehicle from it’s request to industry for a Humvee replacement, however, the JAMMA comes in two flavors. Narrow track for the V-22 Osprey and wide track for the MH-47 Chinook.

From Force Protection:

“The Joint All-Terrain Modular Mobility Asset (JAMMA) was built as a first response vehicle to better equip and protect those who put their lives at risk in crisis situations. A technological leap over similar vehicles, this high performance platform can handle challenging terrain at high speeds even with a combat payload. JAMMA has innovative rollover protection and modular, threat-specific armor for multiple mission profiles – reconnaissance, rescue/recovery, med-evac, mobile security, and more. The optional state-of-the-art hybrid engine optimizes vehicle efficiency and generates 22kW of continuous exportable power.”

The Special Operations community often moves in a circular motion when it comes to adopting and employing new weapons, equipment, and vehicles.

Take for instance the US Army’s bouncing from the 7.62 round, then forcing 5.56 down NATO’s throat, before now swinging back in the other direction with Rangers and Special Forces making good use of the 7.62 SCAR-H. Light infantry maneuver tactics grew out of the Vietnam War before the Army gradually moved towards heavy armored vehicles and burying soldiers under undue amounts of body armor.

Today, SOF units in Afghanistan are now moving back towards lighter combat loads and unarmored, but highly mobile, tactical vehicles.

Currently, Army Special Operations is seeking to identify a new Ground Mobility Vehicle to replace the Humvee. USASOC put out the word some time ago that it was looking for a SOF specific all-terrain vehicle that seated four troops to include the turret gunner.

At the moment Jeep and Flyer are the two front runners competing for the contract. Jeep has submitted it’s entry based on it’s new J8 platform. Initially having constructed a prototype Light Patrol Vehicle, Jeep responded to inputs from the SOF community to create a new truck to suit the requirements of the units involved.